Will Millard is an international best-selling writer, an award winning television presenter, and sadly for him, a very ordinary angler.

Born and brought up in the Fens, Will specialises in books about extraordinary humans, travel, exploration, natural history, fish, and fishing. His first book, The Old Man and the Sand Eel for Penguin, followed his wild journey across Britain in pursuit of a fishing record. He has since gone on to write an international best seller with a hermit, The Way of the Hermit (PanMacmillan), and a Sunday Times bestseller with a shepherdess, Call Me Red (Penguin, Ebury), among other non-fiction adult titles. His latest co-writing title, In The Hide, is with BBC Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan, and will be out in February 2025. He is currently writing a book with the map making Ordnance Survey.

Will is a prolific Children’s writer with a list of nature books translated worldwide including: My First Day Fishing, Animal Words for Little Zoologists, In the Pond, In the Tree, In the Rockpool and In the Garden, for Magic Cat, and his latest pair, The Beaver Who Saved Christmas and The Squirrel Who Lost Her Nuts, for Hachette.

He writes full time for Fallons Angler magazine and has written for numerous national and international magazines and newspapers including BBC News, The Daily Telegraph, Vice, The Guardian, Geographical, and Country File. 

For a decade, Will was privileged to lead expeditions into remote parts of West Papua and West Africa. He received awards and grants for his work from the Royal Geographical Society (2009,2013), the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (2012) and the Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ Transglobe Expedition Trust (2012). From 2006 to 2012, Will made maiden descents of New Guinean rivers and tracks; whilst recording evidence of inter-tribal trade; and, in 2013, he made a first solo descent of the river bordering Sierra Leone and Liberia whilst recording an acclaimed documentary series for BBC Radio 4. Give the ‘Expeditions’ tab a click for more.

His expeditions led to remote Anthropology and Adventure series for BBC Two, and he was honoured to live and learn alongside some of the most remarkable communities on earth, including the Bajau sea gypsies, the Lamaleran whale hunters, and the Korowai of West Papua. In 2016 he won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Presenter for Hunters of the South Seas and, in 2019, his series My Year with the Tribe won the Realscreen award for Travel and Exploration. His series have received nominations for Best Series and Best Presenter in the Grierson, Broadcast, Bannf, Kendal, and the Televisual Bulldog Awards; and have been broadcast worldwide on Netflix USA and BBC Worldwide.

Closer to home, he has presented series on rivers, urban exploration, and history for BBC Wales including Hidden Wales, The River Wye, The River Taff and Go Fish! Please visit the ‘Documentaries’ tab for the full list of his television work.

Will has lectured on his expeditions at the Royal Geographical Society, including three-times at the prestigious Monday Night Lectures, and twice on their Regional lecture theatre tours across England, Wales, and Scotland. He has spoken independently throughout the UK including New Scientist Live, the National Geographic Store in London, the Wilderness Lectures in Bristol, and Adventure Travel Live. His current speaking dates are available by clicking ‘Speaking’, but if you would like to book Will, for your event, school, or university, please use the ‘Contact’ tab to get in touch.

Will is a Fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, an Ambassador for The World Fish Migration Day and the Angling Trust, and the Patron of the Mobile Education Partnership, a charity which provides teacher trainers and learning resources to isolated schools in Myanmar.

When he isn’t exploring, he’s writing at the kitchen table or out fishing the rivers and lakes around his South Wales home.

Give him a follow on his Facebook page, his Instagram or his Twitter.